The Choice Is Yours
by Golden Emerald
Summary: One-shot. A story of two teenagers in the near future, facing the Apocalypse. Twisted to fit a final judgment and Clow card-ish feel. Xiao Lang x Ying Hua, technically SxS.


**Disclaimer: The characters Syaoran and Sakura, or rather, Xiao Lang and Ying Hua are not mine. They belong to CLAMP. Nor do I own the idea of the Apocalypse, since I believe the Mayans or some other ancient civilization did that. I _do _believe that the story line is not stolen from a copyrighted one though.**

A/N: Originally supposed to be a short story handed in for English. The reason why the other dimension is called Fesui? It's because the letters in the word are all one letter after the letters in "Earth", except the 'e', since I just needed the next vowel after 'a'. Chronos was supposed to be Clow Country, but it just seemed way too unoriginal, and it could confuse some TRC fans.

This was supposed to be a one-shot/short story type of thing, but I'm considering to write a sequel or continuation with Sakura and Syaoran in Xiaoying if this one was okay... just for fun. xP Thanks for reading!

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_The Choice Is Yours_

Golden Emerald

She'd look from across the cramped street at his face and adorn a glinting smile each and every day that she'd run late to their meetings.

He'd brush off her cheery greetings with a scowl, being the cold and stoic guy that he was, while denying to himself that he enjoyed their job of eliminating time warps in their already-messed-up city of Anjing, China. Although the truth was that he did, very much so, even in the first few months of the task… all because of one little cherry blossom.

As dangerous as their mission was, the two guardians of time took it seemingly lightly, for Xiao would never even have to break a sweat in battle against the creatures from_ there_. The world which held the link to the connection of all time… _Chronos._

Some of the distorted monsters took up amusing shapes, such as that one green vanity dresser, which was indeed quite amusing to see wobbling across the street with many-a-people staring.

There was also that incident with the darling little fox that Ying had deeply etched into her memory. Xiao clearly knew that the "adorable and helpless" mammal was yet another of the meddling culprits who jumped out from the numerous time warps throughout the city. Still, he made no attempt to eliminate the creature, due to the obvious change in mood that it caused his female companion. The quiet and reserved Ying would become a whole different person once around her precious "pet", Mimi. Instead of the mere grins that used to be plastered on her face, there would be those bits of hearty laughter from that angelic voice which would always make Xiao's day just that little bit brighter. Watching _his_ Ying, ah, I meant, watching Ying Hua, chase Mimi with enthusiastic giggles was just too hard to pass up, so of course, Xiao Lang let the minuscule abomination stay, at least… until it started to create more holes in the path of time. Man, it was still hard destroying the thing, even two weeks later, when Ying looked as if the world had already ended after the deed was done.

But getting back to the topic of eliminating the creatures of Chronos… here they were, Xiao Lang and Ying Hua, fighting off yet another swarm in a narrow and dreary alley. The only light around here came from Xiao and Ying's mechanical devices, although it was quite sunny outside. Clumps of mold clung onto the crumbling building walls, as if holding on for dear life.

This new creature wasn't quite appealing to the eye if I say so myself, for the whole creature looked like a colossal pile of disgusting, green snot. Nevertheless, the auburn-headed girl took out her Warp-Be-Gone Version 3.4 shortly after confirming that there were no civilians in sight. With one click to the minute crimson button, the prancing pile of mucus vanished into thin air.

To Ying's surprise though, a capacious puce mailbox came zooming out of the neighboring apartment's outer wall. More importantly, Ying's W-B-G was malfunctioning! Before the teenager had time to react, the monster head butted her into a pile of garbage bags nearby, which absolutely stunk of moldy cheese, toe fungus, dead rat, and other unpleasant scents of the sort.

At the same time, young Xiao finished handling another nuisance that resulted from the blasted time warp formed in that very alley. Seeing Ying in such a predicament, he proceeded to rapidly punch in series of code into his Blackberry. Just before the enormous postage flag of the mailbox whacked the device out of his hands, Xiao muttered an incantation in Chinese that transferred the virus that he had just created to the internal system of the unfortunate mailbox.

It had always been like this. Xiao Lang would be the one distorting the enemy's magical aura with his outdated machine, while Ying Hua sealed the threat and warp. She'd then treated the schoolboy to a favor of some sort. And thus, this routine continued on.

The two teenagers went to a cozy café this time, one decorated with ruby-red paper pine trees and light bulbs as glimmering and green as Ying's orbs. The wallpaper of the quaint shop was of a deep chestnut, bearing an irking resemblance to that of the strongest and smartest person in China, who was none other than our dear Xiao Lang. Although he appeared to only be in college, the kid was truly worthy of his title, and that was precisely the reason why protector Ying Hua chose him, even before leaving her home in Fesui, the other of the Earth's dimensions, to aid in the duty of saving the world from the disaster known to the world as the Apocalypse. December 12th of this year. The Wednesday of this week. This very day, to put it bluntly, so as the holiday decorations slowly faded away and transformed into distorted clocks, we can't be sure if Ying and Xiao were expecting to be taken to this land or not.

The many clocks around the area were accompanied by endless ticking, floating watches: digital and analog, and a constant swirl of events from the past, present, and future, acting almost like a free-to-watch movie theater for the whole land of Chronos.

As if it came from nowhere, the voice of an antique grandfather clock squeaked with a sickly sweet voice, "Today is the day young'ens, the day to end all of the struggles that you humans have been going through, in one way or the other." The beady eyes of old Granddaddy gleamed menacingly as he began to chuckle.

Of course, before either person could answer, another clock answered, this time with a tone of authority and power, "Let's cut to the chase, shall we? One of your precious planets will have to die today, and you get the honor of picking. Wonderful isn't it?"

Catching the kids' looks of confusion, the same device spoke with false sympathy and burst, "If you think not, too bad! Select the world to go: your current, polluted, smoggy, piece of junk that you call Earth, or the less populated counterpart, devoid of man-made contamination as you know it, otherwise known as Fesui, home of baby Ying Fa?" Though the true questions here that nagged the young adults' minds were, "Which shall it be: life as it is or a chance to start a more perfect civilization? Furthermore, would it be Xiao Lang's home or Ying Fa's home to go?"

Seconds passed, which turned into minutes, then turned into hours, but Ying and Xiao were beyond stumped.

A voice as chilling as the bleakest winter snow inquired with utmost urgency, "Which do you choose, young cherry blossom: family or Xiao?"

To the mind of the struggling young man, his arrogant conscience taunted, "Hurry up and stop this madness already. She deserves to have her birth land spared, so just hope that she believes so too."

Both young brunettes directed their heads towards each other gradually, still deep in thought. Emerald, clouded with confusion, met longing amber eyes for the last time.

Ying and Xiao each opened their mouths to say the name of their counterpart's home world… but alas, it seems that the two heroes were too late. The inevitable disaster had come so soon. Endless streams of luster flooded the hazy sky, if that is what you would like to call the flickering images of time. Distressed cries of worry echoed painstakingly throughout acres of silence, fighting against the constant ticks that the land of Chronos had to offer, until they had diminished to a mere whisper as the light continued to intensify.

As Xiao realized how perilous the situation had become, all he could do was hold onto his love's hand and reminisce on all of the wonderful memories that they had shared, as Ying did the same.

All of the Earth fell into ruins, not one single dimension that the old grandfather clock spoke of before was spared… but the mysterious council of talking time-keeping devices created a tribute in honor of the former guardians of time, no matter how foolish they thought the youths were: the new world, Xiaoying, also known as the Little Sakura of the Wolf Galaxy.

The strict clock that had taunted the kids just moments ago had a few drops of salt threatening to fall on its face after witnessing such a scene, but it had to be done. Destiny could not be altered unless a new pair of protectors rose up to the task, lasted until the fated day, and also had the ability to choose a place that they both desired. Earth was officially the fourth world so far that had suffered due to slow, indecisive protectors or conflicting choices. Perhaps Xiaoying would have a better future coming up for it…. Perhaps.

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A/N: Constructive **criticism** or **flames** highly appreciated, since I'm usually just ignored. Even if you just ignore this like many people already have, I thank you for taking your time to read it 


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